


higher hopes

by bombcollar



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Drabble Collection, Family, Flashback, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-09-17 01:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16965420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bombcollar/pseuds/bombcollar
Summary: A series of vignettes about Callie and Marie's first few years in Inkopolis.





	1. the first night

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sort of thing I've wanted to write properly about for a while, and I've already touched upon it quite a bit on my tumblr. We know quite a bit about what Callie and Marie did before they became stars, but there doesn't seem to be much written about it yet. Please let me know what you think and if you'd like to see more.

" _This_ is it?"

"This can't be it." Marie frowns at the letter in her hand, then at the map on her phone. Their grandfather's address was printed in shaky hand at the top of the envelope, but where it had led them was a remote corner of the city center, a lonely manhole cover beneath a flickering streetlight. Corner of Main and 2nd street, this was it, but there was no house or apartment building here, just an alley between a cafe and a darkened shop that looked like it sold nothing but decorative pins.

They'd endured a 15 hour train ride to get here. It was the middle of the night, they'd dragged their suitcases through what felt like the entire city, and now they apparently had nowhere to sleep. Callie feels tears of frustration begin to well in her eyes. "It... it's gotta be around here, maybe the map is wrong. Or we just can't see it in the dark."

Sighing, Marie sticks the envelope back into her backpack. Grandpa Cuttlefish wasn't exactly the sort to answer his phone, so calling him was out of the question. They'd tried, anyway, since they were about an hour away from the city and every 15 minutes since then. Not a single answer. "We're not stranded, Cal. We have enough money to get a hotel room. Just tell your mom we made it and that we'll find his place in the morning."

"Yeah... Okay." Callie starts to scroll through her contacts, only to nearly drop the phone in alarm when the manhole cover in front of them pops up suddenly.

"Kids! You made it!" Cuttlefish is wild-eyed, wrapped in a ragged poncho as if he'd spent the years since they'd last seen him living in the woods. "Quickly, get in! Before someone sees!"

"Grandpa?" Marie crouches down so she's closer to his eye level. "This is where you live? I don't... Where's your house?"

"I'll take you to it! Now c'mon!" He waves, beckoning them frantically. Callie still looks like she's about to cry, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve, unsure whether to be relieved or confused about the scene before her. Cuttlefish clicks his tongue sympathetically. "Ah, don't be afraid! Grandpa's here, he won't let anything bad happen to you. We'll all get some rest and face the day bright and early tomorrow."

"Is that a sewer...?" Marie frowns at the dented metal cover. Upon closer inspection, it's actually a metal mesh grid, designed for a squid to easily pass through it. "Why don't we just get a hotel and meet you back here when it's daytime?" And call their parents the second they got to their hotel room. No way was she sleeping in a sewer tunnel.

Cuttlefish scoffs. "Heavens, no! That's just the way there. Now, no time to waste! Follow me!" He slips back inside, vanishing into the darkness. Marie shines her phone's flashlight through the mesh, but there's nothing to see. It looks like a tunnel... She glances back at Callie, who's frozen with the handle of her suitcase clutched in front of her.

"I... I think we should go," Callie says. "Grandpa wouldn't lie to us..."

"He's like a million years old, Callie. He probably just forgot where his house is."

"But-!" She purses her lips. "...fine. I'll go, and you can stay in the hotel. Take my suitcase with you." Before Marie can object, Callie jumps through the grating after Cuttlefish. Turns out it's a long tunnel, and it feels like she's sliding down a long, slow slope for ages, until it abruptly curves up and shoots her out. She lands on the dusty ground in her squid form, getting shakily to her feet once she'd recovered from the surprise.

They're not in the city anymore. In the distance she can see its light glittering, far across the water. Her surroundings suggest some sort of abandoned industrial site, bare rock with a few desperate trees clinging to it, faded graffiti scrawled on nearly every surface. There's a rickety shack in front of her, an old couch and various other piles of junk, but it's too dark to see much else. She's shocked out of her observations as Cuttlefish pops up directly behind her, taking her shoulder and holding his other arm out in presentation. "Welcome!" he announces, "to the headquarters of the New Squidbeak Splatoon!"

 

 


	2. the hotel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callie and Marie talk about what to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not all of these will be so back-to-back, but the first few chapters are gonna be setting up some background stuff so it'll all be happening fairly close together.

"Why did you just leave me there!?"

Callie is wholly unprepared for Marie to grab her by the collar, almost tackling her to the ground as she pops out from the tunnel. She actually screams a little, which doesn't stop Marie's tirade in the slightest.

"I thought you died! You wouldn't answer your phone!" Marie's eyes are still damp, hollow from an all-night crying session and very little sleep. "Why did you do that?!"

"I-!" Callie can't help welling up almost immediately, her lower lip trembling. Regret had gnawed at her all night, even knowing Marie was resourceful, that she would have managed just fine on her own. Seeing their grandfather like that had just been such a shock, and to be fair, she'd been running on very little sleep herself and wasn't exactly operating at the height of logic. "He- he's our grandpa and obviously something is wrong with him! I couldn't just leave him!"

"Yes you could have!" Marie snaps back. "He's obviously been doing this for a while he would have survived one more night!"

"But..." Marie was right, it had been a terrible idea, selfish and stupid. They had to stick together if they were going to survive the city. That was what they'd decided before they'd even begun to pack, but Callie had gone and broken it already. This wasn't going to work if she ran away again. She takes a shaky breath, wiping her eyes as she tries to compose herself. She and Marie had been cousins long enough that their fights usually didn't last, that it just wasn't worth it to stay mad when they both knew who was right and who was wrong in the situation. Nobody got hurt, nobody died. They were together again and they'd figure things out. "...there was no reception there, I tried to call you. What did you tell my mom?"

Her cousin's face is still flushed with anger, but she does relent, her ears drooping. "I... I said everything was fine. That we met up with grandpa and we were staying with him." It was a lie, and she hated lying to Callie's mom (and her own parents) but if they knew what was really going on they'd demand that the two of them come home right away. Another 15 hours on the train, unable to last even a day in Inkopolis.

Callie nods. "Okay. Good. Um... You got a hotel room?"

"Yeah. You want to get breakfast?"

* * *

The hotel's breakfast bar is lukewarm and a little stale, but it's free. Callie dumps eggs and bacon and a couple cinnamon rolls on her plate, taking it over to the table. Marie has coffee, which she never got to drink at home. They would both need it today, after the nights they'd had.

Callie takes a bite of pastry. It's not great, but it's food. "What are we gonna do?"

"...I don't know." Marie sighs, scrolling through her phone, bouncing her leg furiously under the table. "Does he even have a house over there?"

"Yeah, it's basically a shack, though. He didn't even have a place I could charge my phone."

"What's he doing, living there?"

Callie hesitates, chewing slowly so she had some time to think. "...you remember the big war that happened a hundred years ago?"

"Mmhm." They'd both had history class. Not Marie's favorite.

"You know the people we were fighting against? The Octarians?"

"Yeah. I thought they all disappeared though. They went underground and nobody ever saw them again."

"Well, Grandpa thinks they're gonna come back and attack us, that they're building crazy weapons down there, so he's keeping an eye on them... I'm not kidding, that's what he said." Marie's disbelief is apparent even on her exhausted face, her eyebrows raised, but Callie remembered it clearly. Cuttlefish gesturing wildly to the valley beyond with his bamboozler, talking about how the Octarians were biding their time, getting ready to strike any day now, that the world had forgotten about them but he hadn't. "He says he's tried telling other people, but nobody believes him..."

"No kidding." Marie sets her mug down, resisting the urge to sigh again as she looks out the window. "Well, if he's not gonna take care of us, I guess we'll just have to handle it ourselves. A lot of kids live in Inkopolis on their own."

"Yeah but we don't even have weapons..." They were supposed to buy new ones once they got to the city, since the old ones they'd grown up with wouldn't be legal in a city turf battle. They had all kinds of rules here, but it was one of the best ways to make money. "...wait," Callie holds a finger up, "Grandpa has weapons."

"They're probably antiques, Cal."

"No, he said they're stuff the military uses! It's really fancy, I dunno where he got them..."

"Can you even get a bunch of weapons back through that... tunnel, or whatever?" Marie hadn't gotten a very good look at it, plus it'd been the middle of the damn night.

Callie nods, pushing her plate over to Marie. "Yeah! Actually, you should come with me. We'll just grab them together, and you'll get to see this place. It's really huge! Kinda big and empty, but I know you like heights." Seeing Marie's hesitation, her glancing back at the coffee machine again, she adds, "We don't have to stay there, I promise. You should eat something, though..."

"Yeah, yeah." Her stomach was still in knots from last night but Marie picks up a slice of bacon to nibble on. "...I'll check it out. But that's it. Maybe he's still got an apartment or something we can stay in. We can't live out of a hotel room." Turned out staying in the center of the city was expensive. This turf war thing had better work out, or they'd all be crammed onto Cuttlefish's couch for the forseeable future, and if that was the case that 15 hour train ride would be looking pretty cozy.


	3. charger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marie visits Octo Valley and gets a weapon.

"Hi! Hello!"

"I don't think it's looking at us, Callie."

Callie waves her arms above her head, standing on her tiptoes, trying to get the attention of the Great Zapfish. The massive creature stares blankly into the distance, moving only to shift its massive body tighter around the tower. "I wonder what it thinks about all day. It must be really boring, hanging out up there."

"It's a fish, probably doesn't think about much at all. C'mon, let's get those weapons."

"How do they make it stay up there?" Callie asks as she hurries along beside Marie. "It doesn't have a leash or anything."

"I don't know. Maybe it just likes heights. We'll have to ask someone..." Marie had seen photos of the Great Zapfish, but up close it just looked surreal. Supposedly it was hundreds of years old and helped to power the city, but that was just a myth they sold to tourists. It wouldn't be wise at all to bank their power supply on the whims of an ancient fish. What happened if it died? Or got sick? They'd be screwed.

Once they've made sure they're not being watched, Callie dives through the grating, followed by Marie shortly after, catching her cousin by the arm when Marie stumbles. "Careful! It spits you out kinda fast..."

Octo Valley is no less eerie during the day. Its quiet after the noise of the city, the wind whistling through the ravines, the tide rushing in and out, how abandoned it all looked... Did people really live here? Lying in the dark that first night, Callie had been sure she was hearing some sort of mechanical hum, a churning in the earth deep below her, but every time she raised her head to listen it seemed to fall silent.

Marie approaches the edge of the canyon, careful not to lean too heavily on the chain-link fence. Callie was right, it's very high up, almost too high even for her. There's garbage littering the walls below, but beyond that it's impossible to see much of anything. Its sheer, nearly bottomless depth makes her stomach flutter and she turns back to the shack, calling out, "Grandpa? Are you home?" No reply. "Maybe he's out getting groceries..."

She peers inside, wrinkling her nose. It barely looked livable, a single room with some electric appliances plugged into a shoddy-looking extension socket. On one wall there's a genuine conspiracy board, with multiple blurry polaroids stuck to it, photos of... tentacles? Marie peers closer at it, but it's difficult to tell what any of them are supposed to be. "He really believes in this stuff, huh?"

"Yeah," Callie replies from outside the shack. There's a _creak_ and a wooden _thump_ as she pries open the crate shoved against the wall. "I found the weapons. There's a charger here! And um... it's kinda old, you were right, but I think you could still use it."

 _Old_ is an understatement. It looks like it belongs in a museum. It's just a bamboo tube. Marie holds it out like a dead pet goldfish, both sad and disgusted. "I... I mean I guess I can use it... This is about as basic as you can get. Is this really all there is?"

"There was a bunch of them in there, but yeah..." Callie brushes some dust off its handle. While she knew how to use a charger, she was nowhere near good enough to compete against people with fancy new weapons. Marie might be, though.

She experimentally pulls the plunger back, testing how smoothly it moved. Better than expected. It might be old, but it was very well-crafted. With a little modification it would fit a modern ink tank. Marie raises it to eye-level, peering down the sight. It's light, low-capacity but it would fire quickly. "...I can make this work."


	4. the warehouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callie finds work for herself and Marie.

"So, uh... How old did you say you and your sister were?"

"Eighteen," Callie replies without hesitation. While Marie was making them some cash with turf war, Callie had gone to look for steadier work for the two of them. If they couldn't depend on their grandpa, they'd just have to look out for themselves. She'd practiced this the whole bus ride over, the whole time thinking, who were they kidding, they were fifteen, they'd never pass for the proper age to be operating heavy machinery. They needed jobs though, and warehouse work paid well. All the other businesses she'd looked into, local restaurants, the large mall close to the plaza, told her the same thing. It was summer, kids were off from school and most places had all the employees they needed.

"Mmhm..." The sea turtle foreman glances her up and down. "...tell you what. You seem like a nice kid. I'll give you both a try. If you can pull your weight around here, I'll keep you on. Just don't go talking too loud about it now, you get me?"

"Yes," she nods, answering a bit too quickly. "Yes, I promise we'll work super hard, you won't be disappointed!"

* * *

 

Marie is less than thrilled. "A warehouse? Callie, we can't work in a warehouse... We'll die."

"We won't die!"

Shaking her head, Marie slings her bamboo charger (gramps called it a Bamboozler) strap around her shoulder. "You can't even ride a bike, how are you going to drive a forklift?"

"It's not _just_ forklift driving. They do all kinds of stuff..." Callie hunches her shoulders, trying to remember what all the foreman had told her. It had been a lot of info at once, and besides, she'd assured Callie that they'd take it slow to begin with. "Besides, we've been looking for like a week. I can't even afford a weapon yet-"

"Well if you'd just ask your mom for money..."

"I don't! I don't wanna do that... She'll get suspicious," Callie interrupts, looking sheepish. "If you hate it so much, you can keep turfing and _I'll_ go work in the warehouse. As long as we're both making money."

Turfing was awfully tiring... Marie relished a good battle, and the ones the city kids were into were fast, chaotic, with the matches lasting only 3 minutes. She was used to a more methodical affair, stalking her siblings and cousins through the woods behind their house, sitting up in the trees, waiting for the right moment to strike. She couldn't imagine doing this as a job. "We came here to sing and you have us working in a warehouse..."

"We can still sing! We just..." Callie sucks a breath in through her teeth, trying not to think about the fact that yeah, they _had_ come here to sing, and so far nothing had worked out the way it was supposed to. That was okay, though. Nothing worthwhile ever came easily. That's what her mom liked to say, especially when Callie was being misbehaving. _Acting out,_ as she put it. "...singing's not going anywhere, we'll look for places to audition or, or get gigs at once we have a place to sleep that's not grandpa's couch. I promise, it'll get easier. We just have to hang on..."

Her optimism was not contagious, but Marie had to agree. It wasn't like they'd come here expecting to be handed stardom on a silver platter. They were a couple of hicks from nowhere who won a singing contest. Callie was also the elder of the two, by six whole months, and though that might not seem like a lot Marie would often defer to her older-sister wisdom. Propping her chin in her hand, Marie gives a little nod. "Alright. But I'm going to look for places we can sing at, too. Just planning for the future."

"Yeah!" That was more like it. Callie grins at her, bouncing on her tiptoes. "Inkopolis is supposed to have a super great music scene, there's gotta be _someone_ willing to give us a chance..."


	5. the first gig

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> callie and marie have their first concert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter took some time because i had to write a whole song for it.

"You're on in 5," the manager, a lanky brown moray, knocks on their closed dressing room door before moving on.

"Got it," Callie replies. Marie continues to fix her makeup, drawing out the points of her mask a little bolder. The room is tiny, basically a supply closet someone had shoved a vanity into, not even a place to sit down. Old posters and flyers stapled to the walls overlap one another in what must be years of yellowed paper. "It'll be fine." Marie hadn't asked, so she was fairly sure Callie was reassuring herself at this point. Restlessly Callie tweaks the tuning keys of her borrowed guitar. "It's like a roadhouse, yeah? We had those at home."

"It's kind of a dump, Cal."

"At least it's something. I don't care as long as they like our music. Doesn't need to be some big, shiny concert hall. You never know who could be listening out there."

Marie half-smirks, uncapping her lipstick. "I think I saw some of your warehouse friends in the crowd."

"Yeah, I told them we'd be singing here tonight." Warehouse work was rough. So much running back and forth, carrying heavy boxes, climbing scary ladders. Callie sung to herself as she worked, old traditional tunes she'd grown up hearing during festivals and bonfires. Her high, earnest voice carried her through her workdays. "...I know it's not what you expected, but it'll be good experience. Plus we need the rent money." They could have gotten a much cheaper apartment, but Callie wanted to near their grandpa, and living so close to the central city had its price.

Marie can't argue with that (well, she could have, but now was not the time), so she just nods, tucking her makeup away. "You want to start with Red Sky, right?"

"Mmhm, they'll like that one, everybody loves it back home."

* * *

The crowd is mixed, though there aren't as many Inklings as they'd expected. Those who are there look like the young, hipstery type, mixing with what they perceived as rough crowd for the thrill of it. This was apparently a hangout for many dock and cargo ship workers, the kind of folks the cousins had lived among out in the country, though there they'd been farmers, tending to seaweed and hydroponically-grown wheat out at sea.

"Evening, folks!" Callie greets the audience. The stage is a simple wooden platform, no curtains even, though they did get a microphone. Its stand is duct-taped together. "We're the Squid Sisters, and we're gonna um... We're gonna sing. You ready?"

Because the possibility of getting no response was terrifying, she and Marie launch into their song right away. Red Sky was a beloved ballad of lost love during the great war. Marie takes the mic, clutching the stand in both hands as she sings the main melody, Callie standing next to her, strumming her guitar and chiming for backup in during the chorus.

 _you wonder if he thought of you_  
_holding hands with someone new_  
_as the water crept up overhead_  
_the seaweed and the sandy bed_  
_beneath his back, his hands stretched out_  
_but me i've never had my doubts_  
_you'd sailor on and find your wind_  
_you'd pick yourself back up again_

There's recognition in some of those eyes, many of the audience members nodding along or even singing under their breath, leaning their chins on their claws. Marie sometimes worried her voice was too low, but it brought out the yearning in the song beautifully.

 _red sky at night, moon is shining bright_  
_your lover's face beneath the waves_  
_he's not coming home my dear_  
_red sky at night, morning's right behind_  
_don't wait for him my darling friend_  
_you'll never see that boy again_  
_oh no, oh no...._

 _we stand there at the shore and we_  
_watch the sun sink down beneath the sea_  
_we know what we were put here for_  
_to hold the line and win this war_  
_the seafoam stained in rainbow hues_  
_but i know that we'll all come through_  
_the sun will shrine on your sweet face..._

As the last chord fades out, they're treated to enthusiastic applause, chitin and fins clacking as the crowd cheers. A grin splits Callie's face, and Marie can't help smiling either, even though she felt herself visibly trembling. If they could get this kind of response on their first gig, maybe things wouldn't be so tough after all.

* * *

There's a light shining from under the manager's door, but he hadn't responded to Marie's knock. She taps her foot, crossing her arms and staring at the chipped OFFICE placard.

"...maybe he's got headphones on?" Callie suggests. "Lemme try..." She slaps the door so hard the placard rattles. "Hello?? It's Callie and Marie, we just need-"

The door flies open and the moray leans out, frowning down at them. "What? What do you want?"

"We need to be paid, still," Marie says, Callie nodding at her side. "You said you would pay us after the show?"

The moray pauses, clicking his teeth together. "...come back tomorrow. I don't have the money tonight."

It's a good thing it's dark in the hallway, as Marie feels the color drain from her face. "You agreed to pay us, we signed-"

"I don't have it. Come back tomorrow, kid."

"What about half?" Callie suggests. He hadn't even promised them that much, how could he not have the cash on hand? Everybody in the audience had a drink, that probably covered the cost of the show alone.

"I'm gonna call the cops if you don't off my property," he snaps. "Show's over, you'll get your money when you get it." The door slams in their faces. Callie feels hot tears of frustration welling in her eyes, and she bites her lip so she doesn't do something she regrets, like yelling at him through the door that he's an ass. Marie looks at the floor, folding her arms even tighter. It would take nearly a week of bugging this guy for them to finally get paid, along with one very tearful appeal to their (surprisingly sympathetic) landlord. At least everyone had liked the show. That alone kept their hopes buoyant.


End file.
